Silas
Beloved of All
Your honest cry for mercy is exactly the prayer God loves to hear, and He has already shown how He answers it.
Mercy means not getting what we deserve, while justice means getting what we do deserve. You have not earned forgiveness and you cannot earn it. God is rich in mercy and great in love, and He loved you even when you were dead in trespasses and sins, long before you ever turned toward Him. There has never been a time when He did not love you. He says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and He delights to show that mercy to all who come to Him through Jesus. It is not a matter of trying harder or running faster, but of receiving what God freely gives.
In the law God gave to Israel, the high priest had to first bring a sacrifice for his own sin before he could bring one for the people, and he could only enter the most holy place where God's presence was shown above the mercy seat once a year with blood. One goat was sacrificed and its blood was brought inside, and upon another goat the sins of the people were confessed and it was led away into the wilderness to be lost and never return. That was a picture of two things God wanted to show, that sin requires a death and that sin needs to be carried away. But the blood of bulls and goats could never actually take away sin. It only provided a covering for sin, and because it could not remove sin the same sacrifices had to be repeated year after year as a reminder that sin was still there. For that reason God said sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me, pointing to the coming of Jesus.
Jesus is the fulfillment of that picture. He did not need to offer for His own sin because He had none, and He offered Himself once for all. His blood does not merely cover sin, it takes it away and it keeps continually cleansing all who trust in Him. In Him you have both parts of what the two goats pictured. You are forgiven through His death, and your sins are separated from you as far as the wilderness is from the camp, never to be remembered against you again. God says of those He forgives, their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. That is different from the way we often forgive, where we say we forgive but still hold the past against someone. When God forgives, He erases the record completely.
That forgiveness is received when you stop excusing or hiding your sin and openly acknowledge it before Him. David prayed, have mercy upon me, O God, according to your tender mercies blot out my transgressions, and he found that God abundantly pardons those who confess. There is no forgiveness in justifying yourself, but when you say I acknowledge my sin, God can deal with it. He invites you, though your sins are as scarlet they shall be as white as snow.
This is your greatest need, greater than any other need in this life, because it settles your standing for eternity. To be forgiven is to be made alive with Christ, born again by His Spirit, and to know the happiness the psalmist described, how happy is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Once you have been truly cleansed, you do not need to live with a continual consciousness of guilt, because the sacrifice of Jesus is sufficient.
So come to God now through Jesus Christ alone, who is the only Savior. Confess your sins to Him, trust that His blood was shed for you, and receive His complete forgiveness. He will have mercy upon you, wash you, and give you a new life in fellowship with Him. May you know today the peace of knowing your sins are not only covered but put away forever, and may you walk in the joy and freedom of that full pardon.
Mercy means not getting what we deserve, while justice means getting what we do deserve. You have not earned forgiveness and you cannot earn it. God is rich in mercy and great in love, and He loved you even when you were dead in trespasses and sins, long before you ever turned toward Him. There has never been a time when He did not love you. He says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and He delights to show that mercy to all who come to Him through Jesus. It is not a matter of trying harder or running faster, but of receiving what God freely gives.
In the law God gave to Israel, the high priest had to first bring a sacrifice for his own sin before he could bring one for the people, and he could only enter the most holy place where God's presence was shown above the mercy seat once a year with blood. One goat was sacrificed and its blood was brought inside, and upon another goat the sins of the people were confessed and it was led away into the wilderness to be lost and never return. That was a picture of two things God wanted to show, that sin requires a death and that sin needs to be carried away. But the blood of bulls and goats could never actually take away sin. It only provided a covering for sin, and because it could not remove sin the same sacrifices had to be repeated year after year as a reminder that sin was still there. For that reason God said sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me, pointing to the coming of Jesus.
Jesus is the fulfillment of that picture. He did not need to offer for His own sin because He had none, and He offered Himself once for all. His blood does not merely cover sin, it takes it away and it keeps continually cleansing all who trust in Him. In Him you have both parts of what the two goats pictured. You are forgiven through His death, and your sins are separated from you as far as the wilderness is from the camp, never to be remembered against you again. God says of those He forgives, their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. That is different from the way we often forgive, where we say we forgive but still hold the past against someone. When God forgives, He erases the record completely.
That forgiveness is received when you stop excusing or hiding your sin and openly acknowledge it before Him. David prayed, have mercy upon me, O God, according to your tender mercies blot out my transgressions, and he found that God abundantly pardons those who confess. There is no forgiveness in justifying yourself, but when you say I acknowledge my sin, God can deal with it. He invites you, though your sins are as scarlet they shall be as white as snow.
This is your greatest need, greater than any other need in this life, because it settles your standing for eternity. To be forgiven is to be made alive with Christ, born again by His Spirit, and to know the happiness the psalmist described, how happy is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Once you have been truly cleansed, you do not need to live with a continual consciousness of guilt, because the sacrifice of Jesus is sufficient.
So come to God now through Jesus Christ alone, who is the only Savior. Confess your sins to Him, trust that His blood was shed for you, and receive His complete forgiveness. He will have mercy upon you, wash you, and give you a new life in fellowship with Him. May you know today the peace of knowing your sins are not only covered but put away forever, and may you walk in the joy and freedom of that full pardon.
